Hospital.Help

Berlin – Contributions to statutory nursing care insurance are to increase by 0.15 percentage points to 3.55 percent from January 1, 2025. Childless people then pay 4.15 percent. That learned that German medical journal today from well-informed circles. The specialist newsletter Table.Briefings quoted from a formulation aid from the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) for the traffic light groups.

The increase is necessary “in order to be able to continue to finance the social long-term care insurance benefits already provided for by law in the current form from 2025,” it says.

The traffic light factions are also planning new requirements for inpatient care facilities. In the future, they should only receive aid payments to compensate for increased energy prices if they provide proof of this with invoices. So far, the money paid has only been reduced by 20 percent if no receipts were submitted.

However, this appears to have led to fraud. Some care facilities “apparently set the advance payments significantly too high” and, despite the cuts due to invoices not being submitted, “were able to achieve a better economic result for their own business,” according to the wording.

The health insurance companies declared in the summer that nursing care insurance was threatened with a deficit of 1.8 billion euros as early as 2024 and 3.5 billion euros in 2025 – in the worst case even 5.8 billion euros. A contribution increase of up to 0.3 percentage points will therefore be necessary.

Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) stated at the beginning of October that nursing care insurance is currently under considerable financial pressure. That’s why he will present a financial concept shortly. According to information from German medical journal Concepts from his ministry have been being voted on in the Chancellery for several weeks.

The contributions had already been increased by 0.35 percentage points in July 2023. A general contribution rate of 3.4 percent currently applies to nursing care insurance. Those without children pay 4.0 percent. There are discounts for families with more than one child under 25. © bee/kna/aerzteblatt.de